Theodore D. Satterthwaite, MD

Theodore Satterthwaite

McLure II Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Research
Director, Penn Lifespan Informatics and Neuroimaging Center (PennLINC)
http://www.pennlinc.io

Theodore (Ted) Satterthwaite is the McLure II Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Research at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Ted completed medical and graduate training at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was a student of Randy L. Buckner. Subsequently, he was a psychiatry resident and a neuropsychiatry fellow at Penn, under the mentorship of Raquel E. Gur. He joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry in 2014, and served as the Director of Imaging Analytics of the Brain Behavior Laboratory from 2015-2019. Since 2020, he has directed PennLINC. His research uses multi-modal neuroimaging to describe both normal and abnormal patterns of brain development, in order to better understand the origins of neuropsychiatric illness. He has been the PI of 13 R01-level grants from NIH. His work has been recognized with the NIMH Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS) award, the NIH Merit Award, the Linda Spear Mid-Career Award from Flux Society, as well as several teaching awards. He has been recognized as a "Highly Cited Researcher" by Clarivate annually since 2021.

Education

Williams College, Williamstown, MA, B.A., 6/2000, Psychology / Neuroscience
Washington University, St. Louis, MO, M.A., 6/2006, Biology:  Neuroscience
Washington University, St. Louis, MO, M.D., 6/2006, Medicine

Positions and Employment

2006-2010      Resident in psychiatry, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
2010-2012      Neuropsychiatry fellow, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
2012-2014      Instructor, Department of Psychiatry, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
2010-present  Attending physician, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
2014-2020      Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
2015-2019      Director of Imaging Analytics, Brain Behavior Laboratory, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
2020-2022  Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
2023-2025  McLure II Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
2025-Present: McLure II Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
2020-present:  Director, Penn Lifespan Informatics and Neuroimaging Center (PennLINC), UPenn Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA

Professional Certifications  

2006-present  Medical License, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
2011-present  Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Honors

2026 Linda Spear Mid-Career Investigator Award, Flux Society
2021 - 2025 Highly Cited Researcher, Clarivate
2021 MERIT Award, National Institutes of Health
2018 Dean’s Award for Basic and Translational Science Teaching, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine
2015 Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists, National Institute of Mental Health
2014 Klerman Prize in Clinical Brain and Behavior Science, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation
2010 Laughlin Award for Excellence During Psychiatry Residency, UPenn Dept. of Psychiatry
2009 APA/Lilly Resident Research Award, American Psychiatric Association
2008 “Penn Pearls” Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching, UPenn Perelman School of Medicine
2006 Peter Halstead Hudgens Award, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine
2001 - 2006 Danforth Scholarship, Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine
2000 Magna Cum Laude, Williams College
1999 Phi Beta Kappa, Williams College

Publications

Brain development and cortical hierarchies

  1. Sydnor VJ, Larsen B, Bassett DS, Alexander-Bloch A, Fair DA, Liston C, Mackey AP, Milham MP, Pines A, Roalf DR, Seidlitz J, Xu T, Raznahan A, Satterthwaite TD. Neurodevelopment of the association cortices: Patterns, mechanisms, and implications for psychopathology. Neuron. 2021. PMCID: PMC8448958.
  2. Larsen B, Cui Z, Adebimpe A, Pines A, Alexander-Bloch A, Bertolero M, Calkins ME, Gur RE, Gur RC, Mahadevan AS, Moore TM, Roalf DR, Seidlitz J, Sydnor VJ, Wolf DH, Satterthwaite TD.: A developmental reduction of the excitation:inhibition ratio in association cortex during adolescence. Science Advances 8: eabj8750, Feb 2022.
  3. Sydnor VJ, Larsen B, Seidlitz J, Adebimpe A, Alexander-Bloch AF, Bassett DS, Bertolero MA, Cieslak M, Covitz S, Fan Y, Gur RE, Gur RC, Mackey AP, Moore TM, Roalf DR, Shinohara RT, Satterthwaite TD. Intrinsic activity development unfolds along a sensorimotor-association cortical axis in youth. Nature Neuroscience. 2023 Apr;26(4):638-649. PMCID: PMC10406167.
  4. Luo AC, Sydnor VJ, Pines A, Larsen B, Alexander-Bloch AF, Cieslak M, Covitz S, Chen AA, Esper NB, Feczko E, Franco AR, Gur RE, Gur RC, Houghton A, Hu F, Keller AS, Kiar G, Mehta K, Salum GA, Tapera T, Xu T, Zhao C, Salo T, Fair DA, Shinohara RT, Milham MP, Satterthwaite TD. Functional connectivity development along the sensorimotor-association axis enhances the cortical hierarchy. Nature Communications. 2024 Apr 25;15(1):3511. PMCID: PMC11045762.
  5. Sydnor VJ, Bagautdinova J, Larsen B, Arcaro MJ, Barch DM, Bassett DS, Alexander-Bloch AF, Cook PA, Covitz S, Franco AR, Gur RE, Gur RC, Mackey AP, Mehta K, Meisler SL, Milham MP, Moore TM, Müller EJ, Roalf DR, Salo T, Schubiner G, Seidlitz J, Shinohara RT, Shine JM, Yeh FC, Cieslak M, Satterthwaite TD. Human thalamocortical structural connectivity develops in line with a hierarchical axis of cortical plasticity. Nature Neuroscience. 2025 Aug;28(8):1772-1786. PMCID: PMC12321582.
  6. Luo AC, Meisler SL, Sydnor VJ, Alexander-Bloch A, Bagautdinova J, Barch DM, Bassett DS, Davatzikos C, Franco AR, Goldsmith J, Gur RE, Gur RC, Hu F, Jaskir M, Kiar G, Keller AS, Larsen B, Mackey AP, Milham MP, Roalf DR, Shafiei G, Shinohara RT, Somerville LH, Weinstein SM, Yeatman JD, Cieslak M, Rokem A, Satterthwaite TD.: Two axes of white matter development. Nature Communications 17: 1957, Jan 2026.

 

Neuroinformatics and open data resources for reproducible neuroscience 

  1. Satterthwaite TD, Elliott MA, Ruparel K, Loughead J, Prabhakaran K, Calkins ME, Hopson R, Jackson C, Keefe J, Riley M, Mentch FD, Sleiman P, Verma R, Davatzikos C, Hakonarson H, Gur RC, Gur RE: Neuroimaging of the Philadelphia neurodevelopmental cohort. NeuroImage 86: 544-53, Feb 2014.
  2. Cieslak M, Cook PA, He X, Yeh FC, Dhollander T, Adebimpe A, Aguirre GK, Bassett DS, Betzel RF, Bourque J, Cabral LM, Davatzikos C, Detre JA, Earl E, Elliott MA, Fadnavis S, Fair DA, Foran W, Fotiadis P, Garyfallidis E, Giesbrecht B, Gur RC, Gur RE, Kelz MB, Keshavan A, Larsen BS, Luna B, Mackey AP, Milham MP, Oathes DJ, Perrone A, Pines AR, Roalf DR, Richie-Halford A, Rokem A, Sydnor VJ, Tapera TM, Tooley UA, Vettel JM, Yeatman JD, Grafton ST, Satterthwaite TD. QSIPrep: an integrative platform for preprocessing and reconstructing diffusion MRI data. Nature Methods. 2021 Jul;18(7):775-778. PMCID: PMC8596781.
  3. Adebimpe A, Bertolero M, Dolui S, Cieslak M, Murtha K, Baller EB, Boeve B, Boxer A, Butler ER, Cook P, Colcombe S, Covitz S, Davatzikos C, Davila DG, Elliott MA, Flounders MW, Franco AR, Gur RE, Gur RC, Jaber B, McMillian C; ALLFTD Consortium; Milham M, Mutsaerts HJMM, Oathes DJ, Olm CA, Phillips JS, Tackett W, Roalf DR, Rosen H, Tapera TM, Tisdall MD, Zhou D, Esteban O, Poldrack RA, Detre JA, Satterthwaite TD. ASLPrep: a platform for processing of arterial spin labeled MRI and quantification of regional brain perfusion. Nature Methods. 2022 Jun;19(6):683-686. PMCID: PMC10548890.
  4. Covitz S, Tapera TM, Adebimpe A, Alexander-Bloch AF, Bertolero MA, Feczko E, Franco AR, Gur RE, Gur RC, Hendrickson T, Houghton A, Mehta K, Murtha K, Perrone AJ, Robert-Fitzgerald T, Schabdach JM, Shinohara RT, Vogel JW, Zhao C, Fair DA, Milham MP, Cieslak M, Satterthwaite TD. Curation of BIDS (CuBIDS): A workflow and software package for streamlining reproducible curation of large BIDS datasets. Neuroimage. 2022 Nov;263:119609.; PMCID: PMC9981813.
  5. Mehta K, Salo T, Madison T, Adebimpe A, Bassett DS, Bertolero M, Cieslak M, Covitz S, Houghton A, Keller AS, Luo A, Miranda-Dominguez O, Nelson SM, Shafiei G, Shanmugan S, Shinohara RT, Sydnor VJ, Feczko E, Fair DA, Satterthwaite TD. XCP-D: A Robust Pipeline for the post-processing of fMRI data. Imaging Neuroscience, 2: 1–26, 2024. PMC10690221.
  6. Zhao C, Jarecka D, Covitz S, Chen Y, Eickhoff SB, Fair DA, Franco AR, Halchenko YO, Hendrickson TJ, Hoffstaedter F, Houghton A, Kiar G, Macdonald A, Mehta K, Milham MP, Salo T, Hanke M, Ghosh SS, Cieslak M, SatterthwaiteTD: A reproducible and generalizable software workflow for analysis of large-scale neuroimaging data collections using BIDS Apps. Imaging Neuroscience, 2024.
  7. Shafiei G, Esper NB, Hoffmann MS, Ai L, Chen AA, Cluce J, Covitz S, Giavasis S, Lane C, Mehta K, Moore TM, Salo T, Tapera TM, Calkins ME, Colcombe S, Davatzikos C, Gur RE, Gur RC, Pan PM, Jackowski AP, Rokem A, Rohde LA, Shinohara RT, Tottenham N, Zuo XN, Cieslak M, Franco AR, Kiar G, Salum GA, Milham MP, Satterthwaite TD. Reproducible Brain Charts: An open data resource for mapping brain development and its associations s with mental health. Neuron. 2025 Nov 19;113(22):3758-3779.e6. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12950001.

 

Development of executive function in youth

  1. Satterthwaite TD, Wolf DH, Erus G, Ruparel K, Elliott MA, Gennatas ED, Hopson R, Jackson C, Prabhakaran K, Bilker WB, Calkins ME, Loughead J, Smith A, Roalf DR, Hakonarson H, Verma R, Davatzikos C, Gur RC, Gur RE: Functionalmaturation of the executive system during adolescence. The Journal of Neuroscience 33(41):16249-61, Oct 2013.
  2. Shanmugan, S; Wolf DH, Calkins ME, Moore TM, Ruparel K, Hopson R, Vandekar SN, Roalf DH, Jackson C, Gennatas ED, Leibenluft E, Pine DS, Shinohara RT, Hakonarson H, Gur RC, Gur RE, Satterthwaite TD. Common and Dissociable Mechanisms of Executive System Dysfunction Across Psychiatric Disorders in Youth. The American Journal of Psychiatry: 173(5):517-26, 2016.  PMCID: PMC4886342.
  3. Baum GL, Ciric R, Roalf DR, Betzel RF, Moore TM, Shinohara RT, Kahn AE, Vandekar SN, Quarmley M, Cook PA, Elliott MA, Ruparel K, Gur RE, Gur RC, Bassett DS*, Satterthwaite TD*: Modular segregation of structural brain networks supports the development of executive function in youth. Current Biology 27(11): 1561-72, Jun 2017.
  4. Cui Z, Stiso J, Baum GL, Kim JZ, Roalf DR, Betzel RF, Gu S, Lu Z, Xia CH, He X, Ciric R, Oathes DJ, Moore TM, Shinohara RT, Ruparel K, Davatzikos C, Pasqualetti F, Gur RE, Gur RC, Bassett DS,* Satterthwaite TD*: Optimization of energy state transition trajectory supports the development of executive function during youth. eLife Mar 2020. PMCID: PMC7162657.
  5. Baum GL, Cui Z, Roalf DR, Ciric R, Betzel RF, Larsen B, Cieslak M, Cook PA, Xia CH, Moore TM, Ruparel K, Oathes DJ, Alexander-Bloch AF, Shinohara RT, Raznahan A, Gur RE, Gur RC, Bassett DS, Satterthwaite TD: Development of structure function coupling in human brain networks during youth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117(1): 771-778, Jan 2020.
  6. Pines AP, Keller AS, Larsen B, Bertolero MA, Ashourvan A, Bassett DS, Cieslak M, Covitz S, Fan Y, Feczko E, Hougton A, Rueter AR, Taper T, Vogel J, Weinstein SM, Shinohara RT, Fair DA, Satterthwaite TD.  Development of Top-Down Cortical Propagations in Youth.  Neuron 11(8):1316-1330, 2023. PMCID: PMC10121821.

 

Person-specific association cortex functional neuroanatomy in youth

  1. Cui Z, Li H, Xia CH, Larsen B, Adebimpe A, Baum GL, Cieslak M, Gur RE, Gur RC, Moore TM, Oathes DJ, Alexander-Bloch AF, Raznahan A, Roalf DR, Shinohara RT, Wolf DH, Davatzikos C, Bassett DS, Fair DA, Fan Y, Satterthwaite TD. Individual Variation in Functional Topography of Association Networks in Youth. Neuron. 2020 Apr 22;106(2):340-353.e8. PMCID: PMC7182484.
  2. Shanmugan S, Seidlitz J, Cui Z, Adebimpe A, Bassett DS, Bertolero MA, Davatzikos C, Fair DA, Gur RE, Gur RC, Larsen B, Li H, Pines A, Raznahan A, Roalf DR, Shinohara RT, Vogel J, Wolf DH, Fan Y, Alexander-Bloch A, Satterthwaite TD. Sex differences in the functional topography of association networks in youth. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Aug 16;119(33):e2110416119. PMCID: PMC9388107.
  3. Pines AR, Larsen B, Cui Z, Sydnor VJ, Bertolero MA, Adebimpe A, Alexander-Bloch AF, Davatzikos C, Fair DA, Gur RC, Gur RE, Li H, Milham MP, Moore TM, Murtha K, Parkes L, Thompson-Schill SL, Shanmugan S, Shinohara RT, Weinstein SM, Bassett DS, Fan Y, Satterthwaite TD. Dissociable multi-scale patterns of development in personalized brain networks. Nature Communications. 2022 May 12;13(1):2647. PMCID: PMC9098559.
  4. Cui Z, Pines AR, Larsen B, Sydnor VJ, Li H, Adebimpe A, Alexander-Bloch AF, Bassett DS, Bertolero M, Calkins ME, Davatzikos C, Fair DA, Gur RC, Gur RE, Moore TM, Shanmugan S, Shinohara RT, Vogel JW, Xia CH, Fan Y, Satterthwaite TD. Linking Individual Differences in Personalized Functional Network Topography to Psychopathology in Youth. Biological Psychiatry. 2022 Dec 15;92(12):973-983. PMCID: PMC10040299.
  5. Keller AS, Pines AR, Shanmugan S, Sydnor VJ, Cui Z, Bertolero MA, Barzilay R, Alexander-Bloch AF, Byington N, Chen A, Conan GM, Davatzikos C, Feczko E, Hendrickson TJ, Houghton A, Larsen B, Li H, Miranda-Dominguez O, Roalf DR, Perrone A, Shetty A, Shinohara RT, Fan Y, Fair DA, Satterthwaite TD. Personalized functional brain network topography is associated with individual differences in youth cognition. Nature Communications. 2023 Dec 18;14(1):8411. PMCID: PMC10728159.

 

Data quality in human neuroimaging

  1. Satterthwaite TD, Wolf DH, Ruparel K, Erus G, Elliott MA, Eickhoff SB, Gennatas ED, Jackson C, Prabhakaran K, Smith A, Hakonarson H, Verma R, Davatzikos C, Gur RE, Gur RC. Heterogeneous impact of motion on fundamental patterns of developmental changes in functional connectivity during youth. Neuroimage. 2013 Dec;83:45-57. PMCID: PMC3874413.
  2. Satterthwaite TD, Elliott MA, Gerraty RT, Ruparel K, Loughead J, Calkins ME, Eickhoff SB, Hakonarson H, Gur RC, Gur RE, Wolf DH: An improved framework for confound regression and filtering for control of motion artifact in the preprocessing of resting-state functional connectivity data. NeuroImage 64: 240-56, Jan 2013.
  3. Ciric R, Wolf DH, Power JD, Roalf DR, Baum GL, Ruparel K, Shinohara RT, Elliott MA, Eickhoff SB, Davatzikos C, Gur RC, Gur RE, Bassett DS, Satterthwaite TD. Benchmarking of participant-level confound regression strategies for the control of motion artifact in studies of functional connectivity. Neuroimage. 2017 Jul 1;154:174-187.; PMCID: PMC5483393.
  4. Rosen AFG, Roalf DR, Ruparel K, Blake J, Seelaus K, Villa LP, Ciric R, Cook PA, Davatzikos C, Elliott MA, Garcia de La Garza A, Gennatas ED, Quarmley M, Schmitt JE, Shinohara RT, Tisdall MD, Craddock RC, Gur RE, Gur RC, Satterthwaite TD. Quantitative assessment of structural image quality. Neuroimage. 2018 Apr 1;169:407-418. PMCID: PMC5856621.
  5. Baum GL, Roalf DR, Cook PA, Ciric R, Rosen AFG; Xia CH, Elliott MA, Ruparel K, Verma R, Tunc B, Gur RC, Gur RE, Bassett DS, Satterthwaite TD: The impact of in-scanner head motion on structural connectivity derived from diffusion MRI. NeuroImage 173: 275-86, Jun 2018.
  6. Ciric R, Rosen AFG, Erus G, Cieslak M, Adebimpe A, Cook PA, Bassett DS, Davatzikos C, Wolf DH, Satterthwaite TD. Mitigating head motion artifact in functional connectivity MRI. Nature Protocols. 2018 Dec;13(12):2801-2826. PMCID: PMC8161527.
  7. Cieslak M, Cook PA, Shafiei G, Tapera TM, Radhakrishnan H, Elliott M, Roalf DR, Oathes DJ, Bassett DS, Tisdall MD, Rokem A, Grafton ST, Satterthwaite TD.: Diffusion MRI head motion correction methods are highly accurate but impacted by denoising and sampling scheme. Human Brain Mapping 45: e26570, Feb 2024.
     

 


Back to Top